training stuff
Last year I numbered my swims with a leading zero, and I can’t really tell you why other than perhaps it looked cool. I decided to make the system more convoluted and start it with a “2” to mark the second season, and start the swim number back again to 01. _Enjoy._
**Swim 2.01** **Date**: October 15, 2019 **Time in water**: 53:46 **Water Temp**: 53°F / 11.6°C **Air Temp**: 43°F / 6°C, sunny, still **Where**: Sellwood yeti ramp One of my joys over the last few months has been my morning swims, which have lately been graced with gorgeous sunrises, lighting up the skies and Mount Hood with oranges and pinks, outlining swimmers’ arms in a bright spotlight of sun, sometimes surrounded by a low fog on the water. I feel incredible gratitude and awe in these moments, so much so that I find it hard to put my face in the water to keep swimming.
I’ve been obsessively hitting refresh on Sarah Thomas’ 4x English Channel attempt all day long. As of right now, she’s so close to the end, but the current is clearly pushing her past Dover Harbor, and they’ve adjusted her projected trajectory. It was 5km to go, now it’s 8. The drama!
I have to sit back and marvel at her. In a strange way, I identify with her. It’s easy when someone does something seemingly super human to immediately distance ourselves from them. She’s crazy, she’s a freak, she’s one in a million. While she may be these things, by pointing to the difference between her an “normal” people, we assume we are not capable. She’s swimming the “impossible”.
When I looked out at Lac Massawippi from the shore, the wind pushing the water away from us, I felt calm. I had 9 miles of swimming ahead of me, which was 3 miles longer than my longest swim to date, but I felt ready. I only had to swim 30 minutes, then swim another 30, and on and on until I touched the rock wall at the other end. One stroke, and then another.
The day after my Swimapalooza, I jumped back in the water, but this time to support other swimmers driving down from Seattle to do a relay in the Portland Bridge Swim, so I was on the water for another 5.5 hours. This was my first time doing solo swim support for a swimmer for that length of time, so I learned a few key lessons.
In the end, I swam over 50 miles in 18 days for my Swimapalooza, I can hardly believe it. My final day was Saturday, culminating in my first 6 mile/10 kilometer swim around Hagg Lake. It was nothing short of glorious. The water was calm and the boats were sparse. Couldn’t have asked for a better day.